GENERAL PAPER 1999

1. To what extent has the extended family system benefited your society?

2. 'Foreign Aid is a necessary evil.' Discuss.

3. Examine the merits and demerits of regional co-operation.

4. To what extent has religion improved morals in your community?

5. Describe the steps that should be adopted to minimize environmental degredation in your country.

6. To what extent is the low level of science and technology responsible for uganda's under development?

SECTION B

Answer one question from this section.

7. Study the figure below showing the reported Aids cases in Uganda by age and gender and answer the questions that follow:

Reported Aids cases in Uganda by Age and Gender.

Questions:

a) Describe the trend of AIDS infection among the different age groups.

b) Account for the differences in the number of AIDS cases reported between females and males.

c) Why has the period between 05 and 15 years been referred to as the 'Window of Hope'?

d) Assess the impact of the AIDS pandemic in Uganda.

8. Read the passage below and answer the questions which follow using your own words wherever possible.

The use of drugs and alcohol predates history. These were the original "mood changers", long before this term was coined to characterize the tranquilizers and antidepressants that have entered and enriched the 20th century pharmacopocia. Alcohol and drugs like opium were used to forget the cares of the world if only temporarily. They were used in medicine because of the physical effect in reducing or eliminating pain. Until nitrous oxide and chloroform came into use during the first half of the 19th century, alcohol was commonly used as an anaesthetic in surgical procedures. Until the recent synthesis of such new narcotics as methadone, opium was routinely prescribed as apainkiller.

Alcohol achieves its pain killing effect by slowing down, or "depressing" the central nervous system, with the result that all the body's responses are dulled. First, consciousness is clouded; then, if enough alcohol is taken, it is blocked out altogether. The first centres to be affected are those of the cortex, the centres that control the highest and most civilized aspects of mental functioning and behavior. This explains why critical judgment is impaired and inhibitions are released, with the result that the individual is likely to do and say things he would not do and say under normal circumstances. The retiring man may become rambunctious, the gentle one aggressive.

Opium and its derivatives, morphine and codeine, also act as depressants but achieve their results in a more complicated way. Morphine and codeine, incidentally, are still prescribed for pain. The danger in the use of these narcotic drugs does not lie in their initial effects or in their tendency to produce euphoria. The trouble is that virtually anyone who takes a drug like morphine or heroin over even a short period of time becomes addicted to it. The body habituates itself to the drugs' effects, with the result that larger and larger does are required to produce the same changes in mood.

Moreover, habitation seems to involve actual changes in the functioning of the entire body. The user continues to obtain release from tension and anxiety, but as his body builds up a tolerance for the drug, he needs more and more of it. Morphine addicts have been known to take, as a matter of routine, doses which would immediately be lethal to a normal person. The addict becomes physically and psychologically dependent on the drugs so that in the end he continues to take the drugs simply to avoid the horrors that giving it up withdrawal would involve.

Alcohol, too, can produce habitation and even addiction, although these physical; effects and the tendency of anyone to succumb to them seem to be only part of the story in disorder known as alcoholism. Studies have shown that in some cases there does seem to be a relationship between an individual's biochemistry and his reaction to alcohol. Social and economic factors also appear to play a part in the development of alcoholism. In some ethnic groups and nations alcoholism is far less common than its in others, so it appears that a tendency to become an alcoholic has some connection with the social attitude toward wine liquor. And it is becoming increasingly well established that individual personality factors play a major role in the development of alcoholism, even though there seems to be single personality type for the alcoholic.

Current psychiatric opinion is that alcoholism is less a disease than a symptom that is common to a variety of psychiatric illnesses and that alcohol may provide a convenient relief for the discomforts they bring. Laboratory experiments have shown, for example, that cats which have been driven to neurosis by exposure to various situations that create conflict are more willing to drink alcohol when it is presented to them than normal cats are. Under the influence of alcohol, the neurotic animals are less likely than others to display fear.

Not all the traditional chemical mood changes functions as depressants. Cocaine for example stimulates the central nervous system and produces excitement, a feeling of self confidence and great strength. For centuries, the natives of Bolivia and Peru have been cheering themselves up by chewing the leaves of the coca shrub, the active ingredient of which is cocaine. But cocaine too is addictive. Its modern counterparts, Benzedrine and the other drugs of the amphetamine group, are less dangerous, but they, too, can lead to acute intoxication, even hallucinations and delusions.

Questions:

a) Suggest a suitable title for the passage.

b) Explain how each of the factors given in the passage may contribute to alcoholism.

c) In not more than 100 words, summarize the uses and dangers of alcohol and drugs.

d) Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases as used in the passage: